People and Their Environments: Social Science Supporting Natural Resource Management and Policy
As human populations increase in size, extent, and diversity, natural resource planners and policymakers must address growing concerns about a wide range of environments. To make the best decisions – for people and for nature – they need information about how people and natural environments influence each other in rural and urban areas and everywhere in between. That is the focus of the People and Their Environments research unit.
Staffed with social scientists from a wide range of backgrounds, People and Their Environments is one of only a few Forest Service research work units that studies the human component of natural resource management. Our expertise ranges across the social science disciplines: economics, psychology, geography, sociology, and related fields like landscape architecture, recreation, and planning.
Our Research Areas
- Changing Population Demographics, Changing Land Uses
- Perceptions and Experiences of Nature
- People’s Outdoor Activities
- Environmental Values
- Natural Resource Disturbances
- Urban Ecology
Recent Publications
- Arnberger, Arne ; Gobster, Paul H.; Schneider, Ingrid E.; Floress, Kristin M.; Haines, Anna L.; Eder, Renate 2022. Landowner Acceptability of Silvicultural Treatments to Restore an Open Forest Landscape. Forests
- Snyder, Stephanie A.; Blinn, Charles R.; Roth, Sarah ; Windmuller-Campione, Marcella 2022. Gaining Insights about Forest Health Prescriptions from Loggers and Foresters: Understudied Voices in the Human Dimensions of Forest Health. Environmental Management
- Kinsley, Amy C.; Haight, Robert G.; Snellgrove, Nicholas ; Muellner, Petra ; Muellner, Ulrich ; Duhr, Meg ; Phelps, Nicholas B.D. 2022. AIS explorer: Prioritization for watercraft inspections-A decision-support tool for aquatic invasive species management. Journal of Environmental Management
- Ranjan, Pranay ; Arbuckle, J. Gordon; Church, Sarah P.; Eanes, Francis R.; Floress, Kristin ; Gao, Yuling ; Gramig, Benjamin M.; Singh, Ajay S.; Prokopy, Linda S. 2022. Understanding the relationship between land tenure and conservation behavior: Recommendations for social science research. Land Use Policy
- Kovacs, Kent ; West, Grant ; Nowak, David J.; Haight, Robert G. 2022. Tree cover and property values in the United States: A national meta-analysis. Ecological Economics
- Sagor, Eli ; Sebald, Martha ; Kilgore, Michael ; Blinn, Charles ; Snyder, Stephanie ; Russell, Matthew B. 2022. Factors Influencing Family Woodland Management Action After Calling a Public Agency Forester. Journal of Forestry
- Kolka, Randall K.; Haight, Robert G.; Chun, Chan Lan; Berens, Matthew J.; Rogers, Elizabeth R.; Vinhal, Ryan A.; Zalesny, Ronald S.; Nislow, Keith H.; Perry, Charles H.; Connolly, Stephanie J. 2022. Mercury sulfur initiative: suggested program of research for the Upper Great Lakes States. Gen. Tech. Rep. NRS-206. Madison, WI: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Northern Research Station. 28p.
- Bushaj, Sabah ; Byktahtakin, I Esra; Haight, Robert G. 2022. Risk-averse multi-stage stochastic optimization for surveillance and operations planning of a forest insect infestation. European Journal of Operational Research
- Gobster, Paul H.; Weber, Ella ; Floress, Kristin M.; Schneider, Ingrid E.; Haines, Anna L.; Arnberger, Arne 2022. Place, loss, and landowner response to the restoration of a rapidly changing forest landscape. Landscape and Urban Planning
- Westphal, Lynne ; Dockry, Michael ; Kenefic, Laura ; Sachdeva, Sonya ; Rhodeland, Amelia ; Locke, Dexter ; Kern, Christel ; Huber-Stearns, Heidi ; Coughlan, Michael R. 2022. USDA Forest Service Employee Diversity During a Period of Workforce Contraction. Journal of Forestry
Last Modified: 06/07/2016